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Saugerties district reports higher special education share, plans co-teaching expansions and classroom repurposing
Summary
District staff presented special education enrollment, graduation-cohort outcomes and program changes including expanded integrated co-teaching and repurposing a teacher with a new TA hire.
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — District staff provided the Board of Education with a detailed look at special education enrollment, outcomes and planned classroom changes, reporting internal measures that show a larger special education population than state-published percentages.
A staff presenter said the districtcurrently posts a state figure of about 19.37% for special education enrollment, but when including students placed out of district and those served in partner programs, the districtestimated the effective share at about 22.78%.
The presentation noted cohort graduation rates. For the 2017 cohort, general-education seniors graduated at about 84 percent while students with disabilities in that cohort graduated at about 65 percent. The district reported that 27 students with disabilities graduated in 2024.
Program changes described to the board include the start of integrated co-teaching in second grade (initially for English language arts and math in grades two through four, extending to full-day in grades five and six). Staff said the district lacks an ABC (Academic Behavior Communication) program at the junior high, and cited concern about students transitioning from sixth to seventh grade as a reason for classroom staffing decisions.
Staff said a summer special education handbook and an expanded special education landing page were developed to improve communication. The presenter also discussed evaluation workloads and said one school psychologist was carrying a comparatively higher share of evaluations; staff said they sometimes redistribute work to balance load.
When the district repurposes an existing elementary special education teacher to a different assignment, staff indicated the move would require hiring a teaching assistant to support that classroom.
Why it matters: The districtreports a higher-than-published special education share when accounting for all placements, and staff flagged graduation-rate disparities and staffing strains that could affect classroom programming and budget choices.
